Is 11 too young to leave him at home while we are both at work

[tevion]

As you know the long summer holidays are almost upon us.
I have always worked casual hours in other words its my choice when I work and if I do the hours or not and how many I want to do.
Our financial siutation at the moment does mean that I need to be picking the hours up fulltime every week.
I can,t afford to take alot of time off like I have previously in school holidays.
Ds gets bored at his grandparents and when he is at home he spends most of his time happily playing xbox live and playing on hbis computer or watching tv.
My sister is next door so am sure she will be willing to pop in occasionally to see he is okay although she does go out alot.
He has a mobile phone at hand with mine and his dads number prgrammed in and also my sisters next door everyones number to be honest.
I have elft him at the most an hour and a half so far and just told him to get me on his mobile if need be and to not answer the door to anyone at all.
I leave the keys in the back door in case he needs to get out in a emergency.
If I leave him to go to the work in the holidays I am talking of him being on his own for roughly 6 and a half hours.
Do you think its okay.

No.

Advice here

Not a good idea basically

Im in similar situation ....

i am unsure if there is a law or something ...

Oh god thats concerning.
I don,t know what to do now its bothering me

its not easy ...can your son go to your sisters house as she is next door ? take xbox there ?

I'm not comfortable leaving my son (12, yr 7) at home for more than about 3 1/2 hours. I'm sure he's fine, in fact the last couple of times I've got home from work about 12.00 and he's still in his pj's eating his breakfast!

Between Auntie and Grandparents, is there no alternative?

no

how old is your son ?

I mean no, you should not leave him for such long periods. He is to oyoung IMO.

Is there a holiday club that he could go to?

the problem with holiday clubs is that they don,t start till 9 and we both have to be in work for 7 he also hates them.

id say its too young. My son is 12 1/2 and I wouldn't leave him for more than a couple of hours.

It depends what he's like. My DD wouldn't have been happy with that but she has a friend who was fine for half a day unattended at that age(without nearby relative, though she'd have had the nous to come to me if there had been a problem) - a sensible capable child.

But it would be better of you can work out something with sister and/or grandparents.

That is a tough situation to be in. I am a youth worker and my opinion would be absolutely not! I can understand him not wanting to go to grand parents/relatives but could you work something out where maybe he bring Xbox (as suggested above) or are there other mums nearby in a similiar situation where maybe you don't work the same hours and could share looking after kids?
The reason I mention my job is that I spend s lot of time with teenagers and pre teens and I think the worst possible situation is one in which they are regularly left alone for long periods of time. This could potentially lead to all sorts of not nice situations for your son. Also at that age, I would be a but wary of allowing too much alone time anyway.
I do feel for you though, because I know it is so hard at times to figure out what to do and trying to balance work with family life can be a nightmare. Sorry for the long post, but I do feel very strongly that you should try and arrange any alternative then him staying home by himself. Good luck!

I have left mine from age 12, for similar amounts of time. And I have no sister next door! Really, what can happen? Yes, I know, fire, burglary, etc - it's never happened yet though and it's not likely to. They are far more likely to encounter trouble on the way to and from school, which they do regularly. But in all honesty, my main worry is simply boredom.

6.5 hours is long time- apart from anythingbelse, would you really be happy with him spending all that time on th xbox?

I'm going to be leaving 11yo dd home alone 2 days a week in the summer. Only for 4 weeks as on holiday for two. Not ideal, but she's fairly sensible and we have good neighbours.

I think boredom is my main worry. So buying lots of books and DVDs for her!

If it's only two days a week for two weeks, can't she just go to a friends for the day?

well i would have left ds1 at that age, he is now 12. as his sister is next door and as long as he has somewhere to go in case of emergencies etc and contacts etc it should be ok?

he is ok making himself a sandwich, drink etc i take it? my ds1 would love the peace and quiet!

I left dd1 alone at the same age whilst I worked. I did 9-3 every day and by the time she got out of bed she was only on her own for maybe 3-4 hours a day.

It was broken up by a week off and the odd day spent at friend's houses but most,y she had to amuse herself.
If you have to leave at 7, then by the time he's got out of bed you won't be that many hours off being home and he has your sister if he needs someone.

4 weeks, so 8 days in total. I don't really know her friends' mums. She's had a falling out with her old friends a few months ago. So she's only been friends with her current friends for a couple of months. I haven't met their parents ever.

I think its okay, if you trust your child.

Mine wouldn't move from the living room. He certainly wouldn't answer the door, phone, or go outside etc.

My boys are young so I'm not there with them yet, but my mum left me at that age with no catastrophes & noone close by to knock on if anything was needed!

I think it depends on your DS really & only you know that. Hope you get sorted.

According to government employment/benefits rules, it's (implicitly) fine.

According to NSPCC/social services, it isn't.

I think it's called joined-up government...